October 2015

…The disc also includes the short, Vocalise-Etude, a wordless showpiece completed in 1935. The critical response to the previous Messiaen release from the Danish soprano, Hetna Regitze Bruun resulted in international awards (Naxos 8.572189), and she is excellently partnered by the Danish pianist, Kristoffer Nyholm Hyldig. The disc recorded in the UK has both artists closely microphoned, and gives high impact.

“Hetna Regitze Bruun and Kristoffer Hyldig prove to be fine advocates of Messiaen’s music: Hyldig displays a sure touch and a keen sense of colour, while Bruun has the range of expression and the vocal clout to convey both the radiant and the unsettling aspects of Messiaen’s fevered imagination. Nor is she lacking in beauty, with exquisite stillness in Lámour de Piroutcha”. ****

Hetna Regitze Bruun and Kristoffer Hyldig are a powerful duo, and Hyldig certainly pulls no punches. Bruun’s voice is recorded if anything with marginally less presence than the piano, but isn’t swamped even through some of the richer textures in the accompaniment, and the balance leaves room for her own dynamic range to reach its full potential without pushing the recording equipment beyond its limits. Listen to the demanding Adieu on track 10 to hear the soprano voice arc over the resonance of the piano in hair-raising style. …
Hetna Regitze Bruun’s range and expressive power is remarkable, and only the coloratura turns which occur in the Répétition planétaire seemed as if they might have been a little less stiff. Harawi is a confrontation, an assault on the senses – involving and rewarding in equal measure, but an exhausting labyrinth nonetheless. Naxos has brought us a world class recording of this seminal vocal repertoire, and at bargain price this is a release not to be missed by Messiaen collectors.

The Gramophone April issue, page 79 by Peter Quantrill:

“The first thing to be said about Danish soprano Hetna Regitze Bruun is that she comes far closer to Messiaen’s requested grand soprano dramatique than most of her rivals on record. Her chest voice comes into its own in crucial songs such as No 4,” Doundou tchil”, where she is convincingly aggressive: Rachel Yakar (Erato) and severel others sound pretty or tentative by comparison.
Youthfulness is also a rare asset – this is her first recording – in a cycle that goes to appropriate extremes to portray the longing for extinction..before she shows, in the cycle´s fading memories of love, that she can sing quietly, too. Excellent French…allows the music to do the talking”.

Opera News, March 2010 by WILLIAM R. BRAUN

The experience of listening to Bruun’s voice is stimulating. She will never be mistaken for Jessye Norman. But in many ways — the liquid French diction, the throaty but resonant low register, like a reed stop on an organ, the soprano coloring of a voice that does not sit especially high — she is eerily reminiscent of Norman. She does implacability, as in “Montagnes,” extremely well. Most important for these songs and, again, Norman-like, she combines considerable steadiness with considerable power when needed. There is a dark element to her tone that is inbred, never lifting, but she can still be biting in the guttural Andean syllablesof Messiaen’s own text.

There’s not much competition for these songs by Messiaen in the CD catalogue, but it’s hard to imagine a more compelling case for this music than the performance on this Naxos release. The musical collaboration of the two artists is of the highest order and the result is simply spellbinding. Pianist Kristoffer Hyldig seems born to play Messiaen, for everything is here — the delicacy, spikiness, and architectural clarity that are hallmarks of Messiaen’s soundworld. Soprano Hetna Regitze Bruun has an astonishing voice — resonant and rock-solid across the considerable range these songs demand of the singer, and the timbre is uniquely other-worldly (and so appropriate to this music). Listening to these two artists bring “Harawi” to such vivid life makes the song cycle seem like the landmark in 20th-century French music that it probably is.

PR-bureau GCI Mannov…your professional attitude and effort helped make the event a success… we are dependant on people like you, who with such an empathy and skill supply the event with a unique performance. You handled the events professionally and beautifully. To quote one of our clients: “It was so beautiful it gave me goosebumps”…